Orinda

Katherine Philips (1632-1664), the Matchless Orinda. Courtesy Alchetron.

Katherine Philips (1 January 1631 - 22 June 1664) was an Anglo-Welsh poet who wrote under the pen name Orinda. Philips was the earliest Englishwoman to enjoy widespread public acclaim as a poet during her lifetime.

Life

Philips was born Katherine Fowler, the daughter of John Fowler, a merchant of Bucklersbury, in the city of London, and his wife Katherine, third daughter of Dr. John Oxenbridge. She was born in the parish of St. Mary Woolchurch, London, on New Year's Day 1631, and was there baptised there on 11 January, following. She owed her early education to a cousin, a Mrs. Blacket, and at the age of 8 was sent to a then fashionable boarding school at Hackney, kept by Mrs. Salmon. From early life, she devoted herself to the composition of verses.

After John Fowler's death, his wife married Hector Philips of Porth Eynon, and her daughter became, in 1647, the 2nd wife of James Philips of the Priory, Cardigan, the eldest son of Hector Philips by a former marriage. Katherine Philips, after her marriage, divided her time between London and her husband's house at Cardigan. She gathered about her a society of friendship, the members of which were distinguished by various fanciful names, her husband appearing as Antenor, Sir Edward Dering as Silvander, and Jeremy Taylor as Palæmon. She herself adopted the pseudonym of Orinda, by which, with the addition of the epithet "matchless," she became widely known to her contemporaries.

She had 2 children: a son Hector, born in 1647, who lived only 40 days; and a daughter Katherine, born 13 April 1656, who married Lewis Wogan of Boulston in Pembrokeshire.

Her earliest verses to appear in print were those prefixed to the poems of Henry Vaughan, 1651, and to the collected edition of Cartwright of the same year. Other verses, handed about in manuscript, secured her a considerable reputation.

When, in 1662, she journeyed to Dublin to prosecute a claim of her husband to certain lands in Ireland, she was received with great consideration in the family of the Countess of Cork. While in Dublin she became acquainted with Lord Roscommon and the Earl of Orrery, and the approval of the latter encouraged her to complete a translation of Corneille's Pompée, which was produced there in the Smock-Alley Theatre with great success in February 1662–1663.

Pompey was printed in Dublin in 1663, and in London, in 2 different editions, in the same year. It was followed by a surreptitious and unauthorised edition, dated 1664, of her miscellaneous poems, which caused her so much annoyance that Marriott, the publisher, was induced to express his regret, and his intention to forbear the sale of the book, in an advertisement in the London Intelligencer of 18 January 1664.

At the height of her popularity Philips was seized with smallpox, and died in Fleet Street on 22 June 1664. She was buried in the church of St. Benet Sherehog.

Writing

The verses of "the matchless Orinda" were collected and published after her death under the supervision of Sir Charles Cotterel (1667, folio). Pompey was included in the volume, and also a portion of a translation of Corneille's ‘Horace,’ which was begun in 1664. There is prefixed a portrait of Mrs. Philips, engraved by Faithorne from a posthumous bust.

Many details of the life of Orinda are to be gathered from the Letters of Orinda to Poliarchus (Sir Charles Cotterel), printed in 1705, and, with additions, in 1709. The later edition contains a portrait engraved by Vandergucht, apparently from the same bust as that which Faithorne used.

Love

There have been speculations about whether, and in what way, her work could be described as "lesbian." Certainly her representations of female friendship are intense, even passionate. She herself always insisted on their platonic nature and characterizes her relationships as the "meeting of souls," as in these lines from "To my Excellent Lucasia, on our Friendship":

For as a watch by art is wound
To motion, such was mine;
But never had Orinda found
A soul till she found thine;

Which now inspires, cures, and supplies,
And guides my darkened breast;
For thou art all that I can prize,
My joy, my life, my rest. (9-16)

Moreover, it has been argued that 'her manipulations of the conventions of male poetic discourse constitute a form of lesbian writing'. However, there are still very many critics who do not think that Philips had homo-erotic tendencies. Instead, she acknowledges three different levels of love. In ascending order they are lustful love, social love, and spiritual love.

Philips is disgusted by physical love and its obsessive nature. She feels that physical love is akin to an affliction and to entrapment. “Lovers like men in fevers burn and rave, /And only what will injure them do crave/…/They give him power by their fear, /And make the shackles which they wear” (4-5, 7-8). As people are so caught up in their lustful desires, they lose the full capabilities of their minds. Love should be something that frees one and allows one to fully grow and develop, but physical love disregards freedom and improvement in order to focus on selfish pleasures.

Social love, as seen in these poems, is not as base as lust, but it does not meet the standard of true love. Philips married a man considered a 'good match' for her. He was a family friend with a wealthy estate, and in 17th century England that constituted a great catch. Unfortunately Philips did not love her husband as much as she loved her friends, but she did have genial feelings toward him. Her poem "To my dearest Antenor" illustrates how this social arrangement can never meet her idea of true love. She says, "each of our Souls did in its temper fit,/ And in the other’s Mould so fashion’d it" (5-6). In these lines the speaker does admit that their souls fit to each other, but she makes in a point to say that she was fit into the other's mould. Her freedom was constricted; her self was changed to meet another person's standard. To the speaker this is not true love, for true love allows one to grow organically instead of being unnaturally formed. Thus, at the end of the poem a riddle is posed to the reader, "So in my Breast thy Picture drawn shall be, / My guide, Life, Object, Friend and Destiny: / And none shal know, though they imploy their wit, / Which is the right Antenor, thou, or it” (35-38). The speaker does not truly believe that the arranged social bond she made was able to turn her lover into her life and destiny. Instead, inside her heart, she paints an idealized picture of a love she will never have.

The truest form of love is the love of friendship. It allows one to fully know one's self, and to truly live. A physical union is not part of this form of love, instead there is a spiritual union. Her poem "To my Excellent Lucasia" illustrates this ephemeral love. Philip writes of one of her best friends, Anne Owen, “I am not thine, but Thee./…/But never had Orinda found/ A Soul till she found thine” (4, 11-12). Lucasia is no longer a separate being, but a part of her. She is a mirror of her soul; they share one soul. In choosing her friend, she finds the most perfect and complete love: an extension of self in Lucasia. Mark Llewellyn shows that the image portrayed by the speaker is “stripped of all sensual appetite, could become the pathway to apprehension of, and eventually mystic union with, divine love and beauty” (447). Harriette Andreadis says, “friendship here is no less than the mingling of souls, the intimacy of hearts joined in secret and holding each other's secrets, sublimely elevating the friends to such ecstasies that they pity the mundane pleasures and powers of worldly rulers” (529). The speaker conveys her complete fulfillment in her friend by saying, “No Bridegrooms not Crown-conquerors mirth / To mine compar’d can be:/ They have but pieces of this Earth, / I’ve all the World in thee” (19-24). There is nothing physical in her joy at having this woman as her friend. As Claudia Limbert notes, “the tone—the emotional level—has been turned up to an almost excruciating pitch” (33). Her happiness is so great that it almost reaches pain. The most perfect love combines the heart, mind, and soul; it is a love into which she pours her whole being. It is a love where one’s whole identity is blurred with another, so much that to separate would be like ripping oneself apart; after finding such a love one will never be the same again.

Her poetry shows the readers that love is deeper and more meaningful than objectification of the flesh. Katherine Philips found herself in her friends; they were not only her source of emotional and spiritual comfort, they were her essential support in critical literary analysis and social participation. These poems, when published, allowed the public to see the extent to which some women took comfort in each other, and how a circle of friends helped cultivate each other’s literary skill (Trolander and Tenger). In her friends she found her true loves; in her husband she found a friend.

Critical reputation

Orinda's fame as a poet, always considerably in excess of her merits, did not long survive her, though John Keats, writing to J.H. Reynolds in 1817, quoted with approval her verses to "Mrs. M.A. at parting." Jeremy Taylor addressed to her his "Letter on the Measures and Offices of Friendship."

Recognition

Her poem "To One persuading a Lady to Marriage" was included (attributed to "Orinda") in the Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900.

Publications

• Poems. J.G., for Rich. Marriott, 1664.
• Poems: By the most deservedly admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, the matchless Orinda. London: John Macock, for Henry Herringman, 1667; London: T.N., for Henry Herringman, 1678; London: Jacob Tonson, 1710.
  • (with introduction by Travis Dupriest). Delmar, NY: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1992.
• Poems in Poems by Eminent Ladies. London: Baldwin, 1755.
• Selected Poems (edited by L.I. Guiney). (2 volumes) Cottingham, UK: J.R. Tutin, 1904-1905.

Play

• Pompey: A tragedy. London: John Crooke, 1663.

Collected editions

• Collected Works (edited by Patrick Thomas). Stump Cross, UK: Stump Cross Books, 1990-1993.
• Literary Manuscripts, 1632-1654. Marlborough, Wiltshire, UK: Adam Matthews, 1995.
• Printed Publications, 1651-1664 (edited by Paul Loscocco). Aldershot, UK / Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007.

Letters

• Familiar Letters Written by the Late Earl of Rochester; with letters written by Mr Thomas Otway and Mrs K. Philips. London: W. Onley, for Sam Briscoe, 1697; London: Rich. Wellington, 1699.
• Letters from Orinda to Poliarchus. London: W.B, for Bernard Lintot, 1705; Bernard Lintot, 1729.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

EPITAPH--Katherine Philips

Poems by the Most Deservedly Admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, The Matchless Orinda Poetry 3 3

• Anglo-Welsh poets
• List of British poets

References

•  Thorn-Drury, George (1896) "Philips, Katherine" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 45 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 177-178  . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 14, 2017.
• "Philips, Katherine." The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature. Claire Buck, ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 1992. 911.
• "Philips, Katherine." British Women Writers: a critical reference guide. Janet Todd, ed. London: Routledge, 1989. 537-538.
• "Philips, Katherine." The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Renaissance and the Early Seventeenth Century Vol 2. Joseph Black, ed. Ontario: Broadview Press, 2006. 785-786.
• Edmund Gosse, Seventeenth Century Studies (1883).
• Matthew, H.C.G., and B. Harrison, eds. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. Web.
• Limbert, Claudia A. “Katherine Philips: Controlling a Life and Reputation.” South Atlantic Review 56.2 (1991): 27-42.
• Llewellyn, Mark. "Katherine Philips: friendship, poetry and neo-platonic thought in seventeenth century England." Philological Quarterly 81.4 (2002): 441+. Academic OneFile. Web. 13 Mar. 2010.
• Stone Stanton, Kamille. “‘Panting Sentinels’: Erotics, Politics and Redemption in the Friendship Poetry of Katherine Philips.” Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. [ISSN: 1557-0290] Vol. 38. Fall, 2007, pp. 71-86.

--“‘Capable of Being Kings’: The Influence of the Cult of King Charles I on the Early Modern Women’s Literary Canon.” New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century. [ISSN: 1544-9009] Vol 5.1. Spring, 2008, pp. 20-29.

• Trolander, Paul and Zeynep. Tenger. “Katherine Philips and Coterie Critical Practices.” Eighteenth-Century Studies. 37.3 (2004): 367-387.
• Robinson, David Michael. "Pleasant conversation in the seraglio: lesbianism, platonic love, and Cavendish's Blazing World." Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation 44 (2003): 133+. Academic OneFile.

External links

Poems

• "To One persuading a Lady to Marriage"
• "Content: To my dearest Lucasia"
• Katherine Fowler Phillips at Isle of Lesbos (2 poems)
• Katherine Philips 1631-1664 at the Poetry Foundation
• http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poets/philips-katherine Philips, Katherine (1631-1664)] (4 poems) at Representative Poetry Online
• Philips in A Book of Women's Verse: "To my Excellent Lucasia, on our Friendship," "A Revery," "Orinda to Lucasia," "An Answer to another persuading a Lady to Marriage," "Orinda upon Little Hector Philips"
• Katherine Philips at Wikisource
• Selected Poems of Katherine Philips, University of Saskatchewan
• Katherine Philips at PoemHunter (19 poems)
• Katherine Philips at Poetry Nook (140 poems)

Audio / video

• Katherine Philips poems at YouTube

Books

• Collected Works of Katherine Philips at Amazon.com
• [https://www.amazon.com/s?k=katherine+Philips&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

About

• Katherine Philips in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Katharine Philips at NNDB
• Katherine Philips, Biographical Introduction, University of Saskatchewan
• Katherine Philips (1632-1664) at English Poetry, 1579-1830
• Katherine Philips (1632-1664) at Luminarium
• Orinda, Rosania, Lucasia et aliae: Towards a New Edition of the Works of Katherine Philips

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Philips, Katherine